Throughout the talk we will see that the theory of combinatorial
optimization turns out to be extremely helpful when it comes to
analyzing game-theoretic models. We focus on the important role of
structures and algorithms known from matching-and matroid theory for
network bargaining games and congestion games. For example, we will see
that congestion games are immune to Braess' paradox if (and only if)
each player's strategy space forms the base set of a matroid.